An Unabridged History of the Wizarding Wars
by Hogwarts Library Online
Summary: What the Ministry doesn't want you to know: The truth about WWI and WWII. Voldemort's darkest secrets, the disorganization inside the Ministry, and the true story of a boy burdened by it all. By Hermione Granger. RESTRICTED SECTION.
1. Introduction

An Unabridged History of The Wizarding Wars

by Hermione Granger

Copyright © Hermione Granger. All rights reserved.  
>Published by Little Red Books. 82 South Side, Diagon Alley, London.<p>

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><p><span>Table of Contents<span>

Introduction

Part I: First Wizarding War (WWI)

1. The Boy Named Tom Riddle  
>2. Going Wrong<br>3. Immortality  
>4. Lord Voldemort Rises<br>5. The Order of the Phoenix  
>6. Open Warfare<br>7. The Prophecy and Defeat  
>8. Capture of Remaining Death Eaters<br>9. Interwar Peacetime

Part II: Second Wizarding War (WWII)

1. The Boy Who Lived  
>2. Lying Low<br>3. Rebirth  
>4. Ministry of Magic Denial<br>5. Reformation of the Order and Dumbledore's Army  
>6. Battle of the Department of Mysteries<br>7. War Again  
>8. Battle of the Astronomy Tower<br>9. Battle of the Seven Potters  
>10. Fall of the Ministry of Magic<br>11. The Quest for Horcruxes  
>12. Battle of Hogwarts<br>13. The Final Defeat

Conclusion

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><p><span>Introduction<span>

_A little girl presses herself against the wall, wishing she could shrink even smaller, as the People enter her house. They are tall, taller than she is, and cloaked in what seems like darkness itself. Her mother lets out one shriek and then is silent. Against her will, the girl releases a panicked whimper._

_Almost immediately, a grotesque mask presses against the crack in the closet door and a woman's voice says almost playfully, "Peek-a-boo!"_

_The door yanks open and the last thing the girl sees is bright green light._

The girl is not alone. In the two Wizarding Wars, thousands of casualties were inflicted on both sides. Wizards and Muggles alike were carelessly slaughtered by the organization calling itself the Death Eaters. The Ministry of Magic and the Order of the Phoenix retaliated with yet more bloodshed.

And still, some wonder, how did it all start? The answer lies in an inconspicuous orphanage in the crowded city of London…


	2. The Boy Named Tom Riddle

Part I: The First Wizarding War

1. Tom Riddle

A baby boy was born on the 31st of December, 1926 in an orphanage in London. His father was a wealthy Muggle by the name of Tom Riddle Sr. His mother, Merope Gaunt, was a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself. Their love story was more sinister than tragic.

Merope was no beauty, but was obsessed with the handsome Tom. She conspired to drug him with a love potion and run away from Little Hangleton to elope.

Once pregnant, Merope stopped administering the potion to her husband. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby, or that he had surely fallen in love with her by now. Whatever her motives, she was utterly wrong. Tom returned to Little Hangleton, leaving Merope alone and penniless.

She was forced to sell her locket, an heirloom of Slytherin, to make ends meet. The money she received, far less that the true value of the priceless artifact, did not last long, and so it was that on that fateful winter night, she helplessly stumbled up the front steps of the orphanage, already in labor.

An innocent baby boy was born, and in her dying breaths, the witch asked for her child to be named Tom Morvolo Riddle. Tom, for his father. Morvolo, for his grandfather. The only other thing she said was, "I hope he looks like his papa."

She got her wish. Under the care of the orphanage, Tom grew up, inheriting his father's handsome looks in miniature.

He was a strange boy, as Mrs. Cole, the matron of the orphanage, recalled. He rarely cried as a baby, and "nasty" things occurred to children who bothered him. On a trip to the seaside, two of his fellow orphans disappeared somewhere with him and were never the same when they came back. He bullied other children and took their prized possessions as trophies. But worst of all, he was too clever in his planning to be caught by the staff.

In the summer of 1938, the great wizard Albus Dumbledore paid Tom a visit. Dumbledore held the position of Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at that time and came to inform Tom that he was a wizard. He, Tom, showed little surprise at this, saying that he knew he was "special" all along. Refusing the professor's offers of help, Tom was left with enough information to secure his school supplies in nearby Diagon Alley.

On the first day of term, Tom was sorted into Slytherin. The other teachers found him charming and likable, a model student, but Dumbledore had his doubts. Meanwhile, Tom was hard at work gathering a group of followers. As Dumbledore said, they were a motley collection of "the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty." These "friends" of his would later become the Death Eaters.


	3. Going Wrong

2. Going Wrong

While at Hogwarts, Tom became obsessed with his heritage. He reasoned that his father must have been magical, because if his mother had been a witch, she wouldn't have died. After combing through school records and even the trophy room, he had to admit that Tom Riddle Sr. had never stepped foot in Hogwarts. So he turned to his mother, and discovered the existence of the Gaunt family line, the descendants of Slytherin.

After uncovering this exciting new information, Tom set out to find the Chamber of Secrets, a room deep under Hogwarts rumored to have been placed there by Salazar Slytherin in the early days of Hogwarts. Slytherin had disagreed with the other three founders about blood purity, and hoped to use the Chamber to purge the school of those he thought were unworthy to study magic: Muggleborns. Tom found and opened the Chamber of Secrets in 1943. The subsequent attacks by the basilisk within resulted in the death of a girl, Myrtle, in the second floor girl's bathroom. Her ghost remains there to this day.

Desperate to keep Hogwarts from closing, Tom framed his fellow student Rubeus Hagrid. Rubeus kept a pet Acromantula in the school, and Tom managed to convince Headmaster Dippet that this monster was the source of the attacks. The headmaster expelled Hagrid and awarded Tom with a trophy for special services to the school.

In the summer of 1943, Tom returned to Little Hangleton, the hometown of his parents. There, he encountered his uncle Morfin, who recalled the tale of Tom's parents. Enraged by this story, Tom went to "the big house over the way" and used Morfin's wand to murder his father and grandparents with the Killing Curse. He then altered his uncle's memory. When the Ministry of Magic arrived, Morfin proudly confessed to killing the Riddles and was led off to Azkaban, the wizarding prison. The only thing that made him distraught was that he had lost the family signet ring, which Tom had stolen as a trophy.


	4. Immortality

3. Immortality

Around his seventh year, Tom became interested in the idea of becoming immortal. In his research, he came across the term "Horcrux." After careful persuasion, his Potions professor, Horace Slughorn, explained that a Horcrux is created when a witch or wizard conceals a fragment of their soul in another object. This ensures that when the creator of the Horcrux is "killed" part of their soul will remain, thus tethering them to life. It can be created by an extreme act of evil, such as killing a person. At this point, Professor Slughorn was alarmed by Tom's obvious eagerness and refused to say more on the subject.

Armed with this knowledge, Tom sought to make enough Horcruxes to make himself immortal.

The first was a diary, which he planned to use to reopen the Chamber of Secrets after he left the school.

The second, the ring he had taken from Morfin Gaunt.

He managed to charm the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw into revealing the location of her mother's diadem before graduating Hogwarts. After Headmaster Dippet declined to hire Tom as a professor at Hogwarts, he traveled to Albania, recovered the diadem, and made it the third Horcrux.

Upon his return to England, he was offered several positions in the Ministry of Magic, which he refused, much to the surprise of his superiors. Instead, he became an assistant in Borgin and Burke's, a shop in Knockturn Alley that specialized in the buying and selling of Dark artefacts. During this time, he met Hepzibah Smith, an old witch that clearly doted on him. During one of his visits, she proudly showcased her two "greatest treasures" for him. One was a cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff. The other was a locket belonging to Salazaar Slytherin, which she had bought from Borgin and Burke's. Days later, Hepzibah Smith was dead. Hokey, her house elf, was convicted of accidentally poisoning her mistress's cocoa, though it is likely that Tom altered Hokey's memory to show this.

After careful searching, Hepzibah's relatives determined that the cup and locket had gone missing. They soon became the fourth and fifth Horcruxes.


	5. Lord Voldemort Rises

4. Lord Voldemort Rises 

Now with five Horcruxes, Tom began his reign of terror. By the 1970's, he renounced his Muggle parentage and gave himself the title "Lord Voldemort." His followers, now publicly known as Death Eaters, consisted of his "friends" from Hogwarts and witches or wizards that wanted power or domination over Muggles and Muggleborns. A majority joined his side out of fear, for the Death Eaters used the Unforgivable Curses on anyone who stood in their way.

Lord Voldemort's next master stroke was to recruit the outcasts of society.

He traveled to the far reaches of the world, speaking to werewolves and giants, who became convinced that under his rule, they would have equal status with wizards.

With these formidable allies, Voldemort planned to destabilize the Ministry of Magic. Using a mixture of the Imperius curses and blackmail, he slowly gained followers in influential positions.

The Death Eaters spread chaos and confusion among common people. Attacks on Muggles, Muggle-borns, and blood traitors became widespread.

Albus Dumbledore, then the headmaster of Hogwarts, was alarmed and hastened to form an organization to combat the Death Eaters.


	6. The Order of the Phoenix

5. The Order of the Phoenix

In response to the growing threat of the Dark Lord and his minions, Albus Dumbledore formed the Order of the Phoenix to directly oppose the Death Eaters. Aurors, wizards employed by the Ministry of Magic to fight the Dark Arts, also joined the Order of the Phoenix to participate in more secretive, sudden assaults to crush the Dark Rebellion.

A complete list of the Order is as follows:

Sirius Black

Edgar Bones

Caradoc Dearborn

Dedalus Diggle

Elphias Doge

Aberforth Dumbledore

Albus Dumbeldore

Benjy Fenwick

Arabella Figg

Mundungus Fletcher

Rubeus Hagrid

Frank Longbottom

Alice Longbottom

Remus Lupin

Minerva McGonagall

Marlene McKinnon

Dorcas Meadowes

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody

Peter Pettigrew

Sturgis Podmore

James Potter

Lily Potter

Fabian Prewett

Gideon Prewett

Severus Snape

Emmeline Vance


	7. Open Warfare

6. Open Warfare

When the Ministry showed it would not fall easily to insurrection, the Death Eaters stepped up their efforts. The prominent Bones family was nearly obliterated. Fabian and Gideon Prewett, both Order members, were slaughtered by a group of Death Eaters led by Antonin Dolohov, though they fought bravely. Order member Dorcas Meadowes was killed by Voldemort himself, the McKinnon family was massacred by Death Eaters, Order member Caradoc Dearborn disappeared, and Order member Benjy Fenwick was mutilated to death by Voldemort's supporters.

Terror and chaos gripped the wizarding world at the increased brutality of the Death Eaters, whose identities were still largely unknown. This made people suspicious of one another, even within the Order.

Voldemort also made use of his alliance with the Giants and werewolves. Aurors fought hard to maintain resistance during the Invasion of Britain, which was fronted by Voldemort-supporting Giants. Many lost their lives and entire tribes of Giants were wiped out until, finally, the beasts retreated and went into hiding.

After the Giants' defeat, the tide of the war began to turn. Death Eaters Evan Rosier and Wilkes met their ends at the hands of Aurors, now given permission by the Ministry per an edict from the office of Bartemius Crouch Sr. to employ the Unforgivable Curses against their enemies. Many ordinary wizards also met their ends while bravely trying to face Death Eaters, such as Robert Thomas.

Regulus Black, a young Death Eater, became disenchanted with the Dark Lord's cause and attempted to destroy one of his Horcruxes, resulting in his death at the hands of the Inferi guarding Salazar Slytherin's Locket in the Horcrux cave. His house-elf, Kreacher, escaped with the locket while replacing it with a fake prepared by Regulus beforehand. This act would later play a key role in the Second Wizarding War.


	8. The Prophecy and Defeat

7. The Prophecy and Defeat 

In 1980, a prophecy was made by Sybil Trelawney about a person who would have the ability to defeat Lord Voldemort.

A transcript follows:

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survive..."_

There were two possible candidates, both born to members of the Order of the Phoenix in July of 1980: Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom.

Death Eater Severus Snape overheard part of the prophecy and reported it to Voldemort, who believed it meant the Potters' son and resolved to kill the infant. It is interesting to note that he chose a half-blood like himself, not the Longbottom's son, a pureblood.

Severus Snape, though, was in love with Lily Potter, the boy's mother. He pleaded with his master to spare her life. Distrusting of Voldemort, he turned to Albus Dumbledore for help.

Dumbledore bade the Potters go into hiding with the protection of the Fidelius Charm. While James and Lily Potter wanted to have their close friend Sirius Black be their Secret-Keeper, Sirius thought the enemy would suspect him, but not a "weak, talentless thing" like Peter Pettigrew. Thus, Pettigrew became the Potters' Secret-Keeper. No one, not even Dumbledore or Remus Lupin, knew of the switch. However, Pettigrew was a traitor working for Voldemort, and he told his master that the Potters were hiding in Godric's Hollow.

On 31 October, 1981, Voldemort travelled there himself. He killed James immediately, but honored Snape's request in offering Lily a chance to save herself if she stepped away from the crib containing her infant son. Lily refused, and Voldemort killed her before turning the Killing Curse on Harry Potter. However, Lily's sacrifice gave her son the protection of an ancient magic, and the curse backfired, destroying Voldemort's physical body and leaving a lightning-shaped scar on Harry's forehead that a fragment of Voldemort's soul became attached to, inadvertently making Harry a Horcrux.

With the Dark Lord's body destroyed, he was left with a mangled soul, which fled the collapsing building to go into hiding. Many believed him to be dead, while others thought he would return to power. Either way, no one heard from him for another decade.


	9. Capture of Remaining Death Eaters

8. Capture of Remaining Death Eaters

Voldemort's defeat meant that his followers were sent into disarray.

Although the war was over, some Death Eaters were still free to cause trouble, leading the Ministry, spearheaded by Barty Crouch Sr. to launch a massive crackdown on the Death Eaters and their acts of terrorism against the wizarding world. Peter Pettigrew attempted to go into hiding, but was tracked down by Sirius Black, who had realised his treachery, on a Muggle street. Faking his own death, Pettigrew created an explosion that killed twelve Muggle bystanders, and then transformed into his Animagus form of a rat, escaping. Sirius Black was blamed for the explosion as well as the betrayal of the Potters and the "murder" of Pettigrew, and, by order Bartemius Crouch (who was, at that time, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement within the Ministry of Magic) imprisoned in Azkaban without a trial.

Shortly afterwards, Aurors and Order members Alice and Frank Longbottom were tortured to insanity with the Cruciatus Curse by Death Eaters Rodolphus, Rabastan, Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr., because the latter believed the two Aurors had information regarding the whereabouts of Lord Voldemort. The Longbottoms were subsequently moved to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for long-term care. Crouch sentenced them all, including his son, to a lifetime sentence in Azkaban. Bellatrix Lestrange, however, proudly proclaimed her loyalty and declared that the Dark Lord would return.

Other Death Eaters who were imprisoned included Antonin Dolohov, Travers, Mulciber, and Augustus Rookwood, some of whom were turned in by fellow Death Eater Igor Karkaroff.

A small handful of Death Eaters managed to avoid imprisonment by using wealth, power, and influence and by claiming that they had only served Voldemort under the influence of the Imperius Curse. While the Ministry of Magic believed them, there were still many skeptics that never trusted them again.


	10. Interwar Peacetime

9. Interwar Peacetime

For the next ten years, the Wizarding World enjoyed a period of peace.

Although Dumbledore knew that Lord Voldemort would return, he temporarily disbanded the Order of the Phoenix. Less than half of them had survived the war. Then, he and Severus Snape - pardoned for his Death Eater crimes because of his defection - agreed to protect Harry Potter, the boy believed to be destined to defeat the Dark Lord.

Bartemius Crouch Sr.'s brutal ruthlessness shocked the public, causing him to lose his popularity and chance to become Minister for Magic. Instead, he was shunted sideways to the Department of International Magical Cooperation, with Cornelius Fudge succeeding Millicent Bagnold as Minister instead. As a last favor to his wife, Crouch Sr. smuggled his son out of Azkaban and for twelve years, kept him under house arrest via the Imperius Curse, hidden under an Invisibility cloak.

Life went back to normal.

Remnants of the war had anchored themselves in pop culture. For a time, the name "Voldemort" was as taboo as the dirtiest curse word imaginable. In its place, people preferred to say "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." The Dark Mark also became an instantly recognisable symbol of terror and death.

But this tranquility was merely the calm before the storm. The worst was yet to come.


	11. The Boy Who Lived

Part II: Second Wizarding War (WWII)

1. The Boy Who Lived

Harry Potter, now orphaned, was taken from the remains of the Godric's Hollow cottage to 4 Privet Drive, the residence of his aunt Petunia and her husband Vernon, by Hogwarts groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid. Minerva McGonagall, deputy headmistress, didn't want to leave Harry with Muggles, but Dumbledore insisted. Witches and wizards all over Britain knew his name, and declared toasts to the Boy-Who-Lived, who seemed to have conquered Voldemort. The headmaster decided it was better for Harry to grow up away from all that fame.

He left a note with the sleeping baby Harry explaining everything to the Dursleys; most importantly that they must allow Harry to grow up there and return there once a year in order to ensure his mother's protection continued working through her relatives.

The Dursleys let their nephew stay. But that didn't mean they liked it.

Because the Dursleys were Muggles, they had no understanding of magic, and even though Harry's aunt and uncle knew about his lineage, they wanted nothing to do with it. The Dursleys considered themselves a "normal" family and hated anything out of the ordinary. They lied to their nephew about his parents, claiming they had died in a car crash and that James was an unemployed drunk. They forbade Harry from asking questions about anything, especially about his parent's deaths. They discouraged any sort of imagination and screamed at or punished Harry whenever something unusual occurred, such as his hair growing back overnight. Harry didn't know it yet, but these strange events were actually outbursts of magic.

The Dursleys spoiled their son, Dudley, and made Harry wear his oversized hand-me-downs. They frequently abused and neglected Harry, including locking him in the cupboard beneath the stairs and overall bullying him.

Just as with any other young witch or wizard, Hogwarts sent Harry his acceptance letter on his eleventh birthday. After several failed deliveries, Rubeus Hagrid arrived to explain everything and personally take Harry to Diagon Alley for school supplies. During the trip, Hagrid enlightened Harry with the details of his past, including the true cause of his parent's deaths and the reason behind Harry's sudden popularity.

The Potters' vault at Gringotts contained more than enough money for everything Harry needed, from robes to books to wand.

Curiously enough, the wand Harry bought at Ollivanders had a twin, for the phoenix who gave the wand its core also gave another. Who owned the twin wand, do you ask? Lord Voldemort.

Unsettling coincidences aside, Harry very much enjoyed the day and looked forward to his new life in the magical world.

On September 1st, 1991, Harry Potter arrived at King's Cross station. There, he met the Weasley family, who explained to a very clueless Harry how to cross the barrier onto Platform 9¾. Aboard the Hogwarts Express, he shared a compartment with Ron Weasley. The two became friends immediately. Draco Malfoy's invitation of friendship to Harry, however, was refused.

The Sorting Hat placed Harry in Gryffindor at the start-of-term feast, and so began his first year at Hogwarts.


	12. Lying Low

2. Lying Low

Voldemort, meanwhile, had fled to the forest in Albania where he had found the diadem. Without a physical body, he was weak, but his Horcruxes kept him bound to life. For years, he waited for his Death Eaters to come to him. They did not. As the years slipped by, all hope seemed to be lost.

Then Hogwarts Professor Quirinius Quirell decided to take a vacation.

It was the summer of 1991 when Quirrell, who was the current Muggle Studies teacher, traveled to Albania. His weak and susceptible mind easily surrendered to the Dark Lord's will. Voldemort latched onto the back of Quirrell's head like some twisted parasite and returned to Hogwarts.

Through rumours and whispers, Voldemort learned of the existence of the legendary Philosopher's Stone, created by Nicholas Flamel. The stone has the power to turn lead to gold and is used to make the Elixir of Life that secures immortality. Convinced that the Stone would be capable of returning him to power, Voldemort ordered Quirrell to steal it from Gringott's Wizarding Bank. Unfortunately, the Stone had been removed that very day. Even more unfortunately, the Stone was under protection at Hogwarts. And most unfortunate of all: Harry Potter had just started his first year.

Quirrell, now the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, unsuccessfully attempted to steal the Stone. He released a troll in the dungeon as a distraction, but was stopped by Severus Snape, who was now the Potions professor. Finally, he sent a fake letter to Dumbledore from the Ministry of Magic to trick him into leaving the school.

Voldemort then quickly passed through the security barriers and was stopped by the Mirror of Erised. The Mirror would only surrender the Stone to one who wanted to find it, not use it. Quirrell didn't know this, and wasted precious minutes trying to find the Stone.

And then Harry Potter arrived. Suspicious that Snape was after the Stone, Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had fought their way through the barriers to protect it. The other two had fallen behind, but Harry bravely went on to face Voldemort. Because Harry wanted to find the Stone and not use it, he managed to get it out of the Mirror.

Quirrell attacked him then, urged on by Voldemort, but his hands blistered and burned wherever they touched Harry. Realising this, Harry covered Quirrell's face with his hands, injuring him so severely that he died. Lord Voldemort's soul fled, once more without a body. He returned to the Albanian forest, weaker than ever, and waited for another few years.

While Voldemort was in Albania in 1992, Lucius Malfoy was safeguarding Tom Riddle's Diary, which, unbeknownst to him, was actually a Horcrux.

Malfoy slipped the diary into the school bag of eleven-year-old Ginny Weasley, who brought it to Hogwarts. She began writing in it, confiding her secrets, and found that a sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle was answering. Slowly, the fragment of soul inside the diary drained away the girl's life and energy and began to possess her for short periods of time. Under the diary's control, Ginny re-opened the Chamber of Secrets and released the basilisk within, which petrified several students. Distraught and confused, Ginny tried to flush the book down the toilet. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley accidentally stumbled upon it, and Harry began communicating with the diary.

When Ginny saw that Harry had the diary, she stole it back, for she did not want Harry to find out all the things she had written in the diary, or what she had done while under its influence. Powerless against Voldemort's soul, Ginny was possessed one last time and led into the Chamber of Secrets.

Coming to the rescue yet again, Harry found Ginny in time and destroyed the basilisk with Godric Gryffindor's sword, which he pulled out of the Sorting Hat brought to him by Fawkes, Dumbeldore's phoenix. Harry used a basilisk fang to stab the diary, hoping it would destroy its power. Not only was the diary annihilated, he also unknowingly defeated the first of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes.


	13. More chapters to come

**More chapters to come...**

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